Wesley Adams (1872 - 1943)
Born at Nelson (NH); died at Londonderry (NH).
Blacksmith, farmer and orchards operator, lumberman, and state politician.
Portrait by Frank French, 1925.
Presented to the State by Mr. Adams.

Adams (1872 - 1943) was born at Nelson (NH), but his family moved to Londonderry (NH) when he was a child. Adams studied at Pinkerton Academy and Bryant & Stratton's Business College (both at Derry, NH), and worked as a blacksmith for five years. Then he started Wesley Adams Orchards, near Derry Center. The Orchards produced apples, peaches and berries for many years.

As a farmer Adams was a member of Londonderry Grange Number Four. He was appointed District Deputy (1896 - 1900) And became a protégé of State Master of the Grange (and a future governor) Nahum Bachelder. Adams rose through the ranks of the Grange, becoming State Master in 1917, when he was also elected to the Executive Committee of the Grange. He was selected by Bachelder to be the new head of The Old Home Week Association (beginning 1920), and in 1921 Adams was made a director of the Grange Fire Insurance Company.

As a farmer and a member of the Grange, Adams saw much rural poverty in New Hampshire during the 1920s. As President of the Senate (1923 - 1925) he pushed for farm relief, and as a State Representative (1931 - 1933, 1935 - 1937) he supported Governor Winant's State Relief Act and President Roosevelt's Federal Emergency Relief Act. When he died, in 1943, Adams' work for the rural poor was eulogized on the floor of the State House of Representatives.

References: Hobart Pillsbury, New Hampshire: A History (1928), Vol IV, pp. 79-81; F.F. Schmidtchen, ed., History of Londonderry, vol. 3[1900-1976].